I’ve always suffered from really painful and heavy periods. The cramps are terrible. They prevent me from being able to do a lot of things, even work, and they make the five days of my period absolutely miserable. Not even to mention how heavy my periods have gotten since I’ve gotten older.
But awhile I saw a youtube video promoting some health drink the was supposed to help with PMS and the menstrual bleeding cycle. Being the blogger I am, I was naturally drawn to find out more about this. I don’t to this day remember exactly what the magical elixir was, but I do remember the it was something like honey and apple cider vinegar along with some other ingredients. I was absolutely willing to give it a try, especially because people online were ranting and raving about it (and also being paid to do so). However, that stuff was expensive. I think one bottle of it was like $10 and you were supposed to drink 3-5 of them? Not gonna happen.
Instead, I forgot about it.
Until I came across another interesting drink at my local supermarket. It was an apple cider drink, but it was only around $3 a bottle and was made with distilled water and apple cider vinegar. And it came in different flavors like cinnamon, honey, and acacia. Now this I was willing to try.
So I started a regiment of drinking half a bottle of Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar juice every day of my period.
It. Changed. My. Life.
How? My cramps, while still present, went down significantly. Yes I still took ibuprofen twice a day (morning and before bed), but I no longer had to take it mid day as well, and if I forgot it for a morning, I wasn’t in as severe pain as I was before I started the apple cider.
I also noticed that if I felt a cramp coming on, I could drink half a bottle and it would drastically decrease the intensity of the cramps.
So what’s the science behind this? How does this actually work? Today, let’s look into whether or not Apple Cider Vinegar actually works on menstrual cramps or if it’s all just in my head.
How does Apple Cider Vinegar Help with Cramps?
There’s still not a ton of knowledge and research out there on the subject, but there are a ton of testimonials that suggest adding apple cider vinegar to you menstruation care can in fact decrease cramps and cramp intensity. So what’s going on here?
It’s suggested that apple cider vinegar relaxes the uterine muscles and thus makes those muscles less prone to cramping during your bleeding cycle.
It’s also suggested that some of the added vitamins and minerals in apple cider vinegar are to thank for the decrease in cramps. For example, calcium found in apple cider vinegar can help to soothe muscle contractions in the uterus. The potassium found in acv can also work to reduce cramping. This goes with sport related muscle cramps as well, which actually makes me wonder if I should be drinking apple cider vinegar water while or before I’m running!
Apple Cider Vinegar can also decrease menstrual flow.
While this topic has a little more research to back it up, this isn’t true for all women. That being said, research suggests that women with polycystic ovary syndrome, which is a hormonal disorder that causes enlarged ovaries and small cysts on the outer edges of ovaries, can be helped greatly by apple cider vinegar. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome often have irregular or prolonged bleeding cycles during menstruation. Apple cider vinegar has been shown to actually help regulate bleeding for these patients.
This is because apple cider vinegar can help to stabilize blood sugar levels which in turn can aid in the normalization of reproductive hormones. Similarly, since insulin is required for blood clotting, women with PCOS often do not clot properly, resulting in a heavier flow. Thus, apple cider vinegar can help to decrease the blood flow.
What else can Apple Cider Vinegar do?
Apple cider vinegar is highly renowned with people looking for holistic remedies for different ailments. Apple cider vinegar contains proteins, antioxidants, and acetic acid all which work to help reduce harmful bacteria, reduce inflammation, regulate blood glucose levels (as seen above), and reduce bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
People also claim that apple cider vinegar helps them to feel more full, prompting them to eat less and lose weight, along with helping them have fewer cravings for things such as carbohydrates. The lactic acid and fermentation process of apple cider vinegar is in part to thank for that. The bacteria from the fermentation process help to break down foods and decrease bloating!
Some apple cider vinegar drinks also market themselves as energy drinks, claiming they will make you feel more energized throughout the day without the same crash as caffeine.
So should you take Apple Cider Vinegar?
Honestly, that one is entirely up to you. Again, there isn’t a lot of peer-reviewed articles and studies about the actual affects apple cider vinegar has on the body, and it isn’t doctor verified to help with periods. However, if you believe the dozens of testimonials out there, I personally believe you have nothing to lose by trying it out. It worked for me!
How should you take Apple Cider Vinegar?
Again, this depends on you! I buy pre made drinks because it’s easier for me and it tastes better to me. Other people make their own drinks using a shot of apple cider vinegar diluted in water with honey or cinnamon in it. Others take a diluted shot of ACV every single morning to start off their day. It’s all up to what you feel comfortable with!
I do suggest drinking it with a straw or using mouthwash/brushing your teeth afterwards. The reason you dilute the ACV is because it’s so acidic and you don’t want it to ruin your teeth! I drink mine with a straw (a reusable one) because I have really weak teeth!
Are you a fan of apple cider vinegar? Have you used it before? Let me know your thoughts about it in the comments below!
Until next time,
Kat
Clue is a cleverly named tool that lets you clue in on your period. It tracks your flow’s length, amount, and symptoms easily for you in one little app! You can customize it to track the things you want to track such as flow, cravings, pain, emotions, sleep, and a lot of other things!
I love how easy clue is to use! As soon as I open the app the first thing that pops up is the icon to enter today’s data. I don’t have to scroll through a calendar or through any complicated pages to enter data. I just hit the big “Today” button and I have all my tracking options right there! It also makes tracking how heavy my flow is super easy giving me “light” “normal” “heavy” and of course “Spotting” options. It also makes seeing my period overview very easy. It’s all viewable from the homepage, I can see how long my period is going to last, where I am on that cycle, and what comes next so I always know what to expect. And if I don’t want to read it there, I just have to switch over to the Calendar view, which is also very easy to read and use.
I love that I can so easily see my fertility window and can track all the same things throughout the entire month. Seeing when I am spotting during this time has become extremely important to me and that’s very easy to read whether from the homepage or from the calendar. Learning this about my period has been detrimental to me learning about my flow and my body!
The biggest downfall I find with clue is that although you can track a lot of different things, I find that the more you track, the harder it is to keep track of WHAT actually happened easily. For example all the ailments, i.e. bloating, cramping, fatigue etc. go under the blue category. So when you track them, they simply come up with a blue square on your calendar. So if you are tracking more than one ailment, you have to many little blue squares and can’t tell which is which until you click each individual day. It’s certainly not the end of the world and usually I only track my cramps since that’s my biggest ailment. I like to just be able to look at my period on a calendar and know exactly what happened on what day very easily.
Similarly, I find the analyzer on this app a little useless. It takes a lot of getting used to in order to understand how to read it and what it all means. It’s not in graphs or anything like that, so it’s an adjustment from what other apps offer. That being said, it’s not the worst thing in the world, and I personally find I use the calendar to asses more than anything else, but I would personally prefer graphs or charts!
What was interesting about the conversation with my mother was when she told me that when she was my age she used to experience cold and flu symptoms every time she was on her period. I had never heard anything like that before. None of my friends had ever mentioned anything like this before when we talked about our periods, so it seemed very odd to me.
Kat Classics 